The Clockmaker's Secret

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Lena had been working at Orsini's clock shop for only two weeks when the trouble began. It was a gray afternoon in October, and forty clocks were ticking at the same time, like a small forest of birds. Mr. Orsini, the owner, was a tall old man who talked to his clocks. That afternoon, he was repairing a gold pocket watch that belonged to a customer, Mrs. Vale. It had been her husband's, and she loved it more than anything she owned.

At ten past four, a man in a brown coat came into the shop. He said that his name was Kemp, and that he wanted a price for an old carriage clock. While Orsini looked at it, Kemp kept glancing at the glass case behind the counter, where the gold watch was lying on a velvet cushion. "That's a beautiful piece," he said twice. "Is it for sale?" "No," said Orsini. Kemp left a few minutes later. "I'll be back," he said.

At twenty past four, Lena went to the kitchen to make some tea. When she came back, Orsini had gone to the workshop at the back, and she stayed at the counter. She was polishing a brass bell when she looked up at the glass case. The velvet cushion was empty. The door of the case was locked, and the key was still on Orsini's belt. "Mr. Orsini!" she shouted. "The watch is gone!"

Orsini came running, and he stopped dead at the empty cushion. "Kemp," he whispered. "He took it." But Lena was thinking. The case was locked, so how could anybody take something out? And Kemp had left a quarter of an hour before. She looked around the shop slowly, and then she noticed something odd. All the clocks were showing half past four, except one: the cuckoo clock near the window, which was showing five o'clock.

"Mr. Orsini," she said, "your cuckoo clock is half an hour fast. And you have never let anything in this shop be wrong." The old man opened his mouth, but said nothing. Lena walked to the cuckoo clock and opened the tiny door behind the wooden bird. Inside, wrapped in a soft cloth, there was the gold pocket watch.

Orsini sat down heavily and laughed. "I saw how he looked at it," he said. "When you went to fetch the tea, I hid it, and I set this clock half an hour fast, so I could find it among forty others. I didn't tell you, because he was still standing outside the window, listening." He shook his head. "I wanted to protect her husband's watch, and in the end, I nearly made you call the police."

Lena smiled. "A good clockmaker never loses track of time," she said. "But he should not forget to tell his apprentice." The old man took her hand. "Next time, you will be the first to know," he said. And then, very carefully, he set the cuckoo clock right.